April 2010: Addiction

[04/11/2014] New research reports that preoperative pain and depressive symptoms in older adults place them at greater risk of delirium following surgery. According to the findings, both pain and depression are independent and interactive risk factors for delirium, suggesting a cumulative effect.Older adults at risk of delirium after surgery - Read more

[24/10/2014] UT Arlington researchers have been awarded a $744,300 grant from the Department of Defense Peer Reviewed Orthapaedic Research Program to create an adaptive interface that fits between a prosthetic and a patient's limb so that the fit and comfort of the prosthetic are improved.Wearable interface to make prosthetics more comfortable - Read more

[22/10/2014] Inspired by a desire to help wounded soldiers, an international, multidisciplinary team of researchers led by Assistant Professor Conor L. Evans at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School (HMS) has created a paint-on, see-through, "smart" bandage that glows to indicate a wound's tissue oxygenation concentration.'Smart' bandage emits phosphorescent glow for healing below - Read more

[15/10/2014] Physiotherapy students have to apply a lot of theoretical knowledge into practice. Especially therapeutic measures have to be known inside out. Therefore, the RWTH Aachen has produced learning videos which can be accessed by it’s students at any time. And the best thing about this is: The videos have been produced during classes by the students themelves. Students teaching students – Training of physiotherapists - Read more

[23/09/2014] Using a pain clinic as a testing ground, researchers at Johns Hopkins have shown that a management process first popularized by Toyota in Japan can substantially reduce patient wait times and possibly improve the teaching of interns and residents.Patients: 'just-in-time' management in the clinic - Read more

[17/09/2014] Prof. Frank Mayer from the University of Potsdam talks about nonspecific back pain and deficits of the neuromuscular system in the trunk that are a possible cause. Jürgen Fischer and Dr. Peter Stehle from the German Federal Institute of Sports Science explain the backgrounds of the project “Back Pain”.Back pain - does relief come from sport medicine? - Read more

[18/08/2014] A new study suggests that a class of drugs approved to treat leukemia and epilepsy also may be effective against kidney stones, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report. The drugs are histone deacetylase inhibitors, or HDAC inhibitors for short. Potential drug therapy for kidney stones - Read more

[30/07/2014] Achalasia is a rare disease – it affects 1 in 100,000 people – characterized by a loss of nerve cells in the esophageal wall. While its cause remains unknown, a new study by a team of researchers at KU Leuven in Belgium, the University of Bonn in Germany and other European institutions confirms for the first time that achalasia is autoimmune in origin. Mysterious esophagus disease is autoimmune after all - Read more

[16/07/2014] People can be conditioned to feel less pain when they hear a neutral sound, new research from the University of Luxembourg has found. This lends weight to the idea that we can learn to use mind-over-matter to beat pain.Teaching the brain to reduce pain - Read more

[20/02/2014] Organisations involved in assisted suicide help women die more frequently than men. In addition, those living alone, the divorced and well-educated people make above-average use of assisted suicide. This has been demonstrated by a study supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).Assisted Suicide: Women More Likely to Receive Help Than Men - Read more

[03/12/2013] A new study, funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research (HS&DR) Programme, systematically searches for, and makes sense of, the growing body of qualitative research on musculoskeletal pain to help understand the experiences of patients suffering from chronic pain.Living With Chronic Pain: The Daily Struggle With a ‘New self’ - Read more

[05/11/2013] A study, led by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, has found that two organochlorine pesticides are associated with an increased risk of endometriosis, a condition that affects up to 10 percent of reproductive-age women. Endometriosis: Risk Linked to 2 Pesticides - Read more

[18/09/2013] A new study led by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health finds that during a decade when prescription opioid use has skyrocketed, the identification and treatment of pain has failed to improve, and the use of non-opioid analgesics has plateaued, or even declined. Opioids: No Evidence Of Improved Pain Treatment - Read more

[07/01/2013] For individuals with agonizing pain, it is a cruel blow when the gold-standard medication actually causes more pain. Adults and children whose pain gets worse when treated with morphine may be closer to a solution, based on a research.The Pain Puzzle: How Morphine Increases Pain - Read more

[04/01/2013] Up to 75 per cent of patients who take statins to treat elevated cholesterol levels may suffer from muscle pain. Scientists at the Center for Healthy Aging at the University of Copenhagen have now identified a possible mechanism underlying this unfortunate side effect.Muscles: Cholesterol Medicine Affects Energy Production - Read more

[08/11/2012] A global collaboration of scientists with participation by a team of researchers from the Headache and Pain Center Kiel (“Schmerzklinik Kiel”) has decoded four new gene locations whose changes significantly increase the risk of migraines. Recently in the world’s largest migraine study, the genes of more than 5,000 migraine patients were being examined and compared to 7,000 control persons. Migraine Research: "Migraine is a complex disorder" - Read more

[17/08/2012] Johns Hopkins tissue engineers have used tiny, artificial fibre scaffolds thousands of times smaller than a human hair to help coax stem cells into developing into cartilage, the shock-absorbing lining of elbows and knees that often wears thin from injury or age.Cartilage Repair: Nanoscale Scaffolds and Stem Cells - Read more

[05/07/2012] A new study shows for the first time that chronic pain develops the more two sections of the brain - related to emotional and motivational behaviour - talk to each other. The more they communicate, the greater the chance a patient will develop chronic pain. Brain: Why Chronic Pain is All in your Head - Read more

[21/06/2012] Apply the ointment, light on, light off – that is how easy it is to cure various forms of non-melanoma skin cancer. However, the majority of patients suffer severe pain during the so-termed photodynamic therapy. Why the treatment can be so painful has now been uncovered.Skin Cancer: Cause of Pain in the Treatment - Read more

[15/02/2012] A team of researchers led by McGill neuroscientist Terence Coderre, who is also affiliated with the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, has found the key to understanding how memories of pain are stored in the brain. More importantly, the researchers are also able to suggest how these memories can be erased, making it possible to ease chronic pain.Neuron Memory: Key to Taming Chronic Pain - Read more

[13/02/2012] Researchers at the Rothman Institute at Jefferson University have shown that local anaesthesia delivered through a catheter in the joint, intraarticularly, may be more beneficial than traditional opioids such as morphine and Oxycontin for pain management following total knee replacement surgery.Knee Replacement Surgery: Benefits of Local Anaesthesia - Read more

[23/01/2012] Millions of people worldwide suffer from a type of chronic pain called neuropathic pain, which is triggered by nerve damage. Precisely how this pain persists has been a mystery, and current treatments are largely ineffective. But a team led by scientists from The Scripps Research Institute, using a new approach known as metabolomics, has now discovered a major clue: dimethylsphingosine (DMS).Dimethylsphingosine: New Understanding of Chronic Pain - Read more

[24/11/2011] Earlier this fall, a plastic surgery research team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre (BIDMC) found a new method of nerve stimulation that reduces the device's electrical threshold by 40 per cent, compared with traditional FES therapy. The findings could help researchers develop a safer, more efficient functional electrical stimulation (FES) therapy with fewer side effects.Damaged Nerves: Improved Method of Electrical Stimulation Could Help Treat - Read more

[19/10/2011] For the first time, researchers of Ohio State University have found a way to inject a precise dose of a gene therapy agent directly into a single living cell without a needle. The technique uses electricity to “shoot” bits of therapeutic bio molecules through a tiny channel and into a cell in a fraction of a second.Drug Delivery: Gene Therapy Without a Needle - Read more

[03/01/2011] Discovering foreign countries, getting to know new civilizations. What’s possible for many today, in the 17th century was an adventure few dared to embark on. Back then, moving from one continent to another was only possible by ship. But journeys that often lasted many months were often also very perilous – and generally no trained physicians were on board the ship. A Journey into Adventure: A ship’s surgeon in the 17th century - Read more

[06/08/2010] Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have succeeded in identifying for the first time a gene associated with susceptibility to chronic pain caused by nerve injury in humans, signalling a significant step toward better understanding and treating of the condition.DNA: Gene Identified Related to Chronic Pain - Read more

[24/06/2010] Researchers looking for the first time at how migraine sufferers experience the stigmatizing effects of their disease show that chronic migraine sufferers experience worse stigma than episodic migraine sufferers and more than those with other neurological diseases including stroke, epilepsy and MS.Migraine: Stigma Is Significant - Read more

[12/03/2010] A new study finds that blacks and Hispanics use hospice for advanced heart failure at a rate of up to 50 percent less than whites, despite a markedly higher rate of incidence of the disease in these populations.Hospice: Racial Differences in Utilisation - Read more

[01/01/2010] For decades, dealing with dying patients was no topic for German medical students, even though most doctors have to face death. Finally the subject palliative care has become part of the curriculum. MEDICA.de spoke to Christof Müller-Busch, President of the German Association for Palliative Medicine, about the rising number of patients with old-age diseases and actors in palliative seminars.
New Subject Palliative Care: „Doctors Have to Accept that Life Is Limited.” - Read more

[11/12/2009] Researchers report that the human body has an entirely unique and separate sensory system aside from the nerves that give most of us the ability to touch and feel.Skin: Hidden Sensory System? - Read more

[20/04/2009] Nerve signals that tell the brain that we are being slowly stroked on the skin have their own specialised nerve fibres in the skin. This is shown by a new study. The discovery may explain why touching the skin can relieve pain.Brain: Why Touching Can Relieve Pain - Read more